Rugby union in Kenya is a popular sport, in particular due to the success of the Kenya national rugby sevens team in the rugby sevens format, and tournaments such as the Safari Sevens, which has been growing yearly, and now includes numerous international teams.
The Rugby Football Union of Kenya (RFU-K) was formed in 1923. RFU-K was then incorporated into the Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) in 1956. Kenya deaf Rugby Football Union was formed in 1970 to govern the game in Kenya.[2]
The first recorded game in Kenya took place in 1909, when a team composed of predominantly British "Officials" took on mainly Afrikaaner "Settlers" in Mombasa.[4]
The Rugby Football Union of Kenya (RFU-K) was formed in 1923, the same year when Nairobi District team split to form Harlequins RFC (which is not the current club Kenya Harlequins which was formed in 1952) and Nondescripts RFC. Impala RFC, another traditional club was founded in the 1930s. For a number of years, the Nondescripts and the Harlequins were two of the best sides in the country and dominated Kenyan rugby.[4]
When the British Isles went to South Africa for their 1955 tour and their 1962 tour, they played East Africa sides in Nairobi, on the return leg of their journey. The Lions won both of these games, 39-12[5] and 50-0[6] respectively.
The political struggle in Kenya took a heavy toll on rugby. Not only had the white population failed to promote the game properly amongst the black African and Asian population in Kenya, but when employment restrictions were introduced by the newly independent Kenyan state, they ensured that a number of the white British and South Africans who had been the mainstay of the game previously left the country.[4]
The large distances involved would frequently cause big communication problems for Kenyan teams. For example, in 1974, when Nairobi was due to play Mombasa, the Mombasa team flew to Nairobi, while the Nairobi team drove to Mombasa.[7] It was a 950-mile round trip, meaning that the two teams covered nearly 2,000 miles in a game that didn't happen.[7]
Until the mid-1970s the sport in Kenya was mainly played by expatriates. This changed once new "black" clubs, Mean Machine RFC and Mwamba RFC were formed. Today, rugby in Kenya is played almost exclusively by indigenous players. Rugby in Kenya is mostly played in Nairobi, only a handful of teams come from outside the capital.
The struggle to make Kenyan rugby truly multiracial, and to make it popular was tackled frantically by the KRFU in the post-independence period, with success only coming under its president George Kariuki in the 1980s and 1990s.[4] The former Gloucester player Dave Protherough helped out the KRFU, before his death in the mid-1990s, and helped the game to thrive once more.[4]
Kenya dominated the local 'international' rugby scene but when combined with Tanzania and Uganda they formed the East Africa rugby union team. This consisted mostly of white settlers from Kenya, and the games tended to be hosted in Nairobi. Nicknamed The Tuskers, a name which was taken from a local beer, the first overseas touring East Africa XV played in the Copperbelt of what was then Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, in September 1954 when they won six out of seven matches.
The national team played its first international in 1955, and is yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. However, the country's sevens team has had far more international success.
Kenya was ranked 39th in the world by the IRB as of 6 April 2009.[11] However, in 2010, Kenya rose in the ranking to 32nd in the world and later ranked 31st in 2013 after beating Zimbabwe 29–17 in a tournament that doubled up as the qualifying stage for the 2015 World Cup.[12].As of the 31st of October 2022, the team was ranked number 33 by World Rugby.
As of 2023 Kenya is ranked 31st by World Rugby and has been playing impressively well. This is evident in their results in the African Rugby Cup as Kenya have been the runners-up of the past four years in a row losing to Namibia. As well as this they also finished second in the 2023 Rugby World Cup African Qualification tournament which qualified them for the repechage cup.
The popularity of Kenyan rugby has greatly increased over the last few years and the country now has over 40 clubs, 40,000 players, of whom nearly 30,000 are teenagers and 3000 are women.[13]
The KRFU also oversees Kenyan schools rugby, including the Prescott Cup for the most elite teams, and the Damu Pevu shield for the second level of teams (and second XV). In 1990, Rugby 15s was admitted as formal sport in secondary schools around the country and in 2008 it was admitted as a primary school sport. Rugby Sevens was admitted as a formal sport in secondary schools in 2004.
A major part of competition at the junior level is the St Mary's Blackrock Festival which has been used to scout for Kenya's top players for the last 26 years.[14]Biko Adema, a current Kenya sevens player, was once the most valuable player in the tournament.
Club rugby
The Kenya Cup is the highest level rugby union league in Kenya and is yet to turn professional. Since the early 1960s The Eric Shirley Shield has been competed by club 2nd XV's and smaller clubs. The national cup competition, Enterprise Cup, has been played almost uninterrupted since 1930 (with the exception of the war years and 1987 during the All African Games).[15] In addition there is the National Sevens Circuit and other competitions such as the Great Rift 10-A-Side rugby tournament which many clubs take part in.
The East African Bamburi Rugby Super Series also takes place in Kenya. With a franchised system, players from different clubs join producing a higher quality of rugby.
Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) is the governing body for rugby union in Kenya. It was founded in 1970 and is affiliated to Rugby Africa and the international governing body World Rugby.
The Safari Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held in Nairobi, Kenya. The Safari Sevens is open to international representative sides, professional and amateur clubs, invitational teams, university and school teams.
The Kenya national rugby union team, commonly known as the Simbas, is the country's national team managed by the Kenya Rugby Union. The team plays in red, green, and black jerseys with black or white shorts. The Simbas represent Kenya in the Africa Cup and various other tournaments across the continent. They currently rank 34 in the World Rugby Rankings and fourth in Africa. Kenya is yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup.
Ugochukwu Chiedozie Monye is an English sports pundit and former rugby union player, Monye played 14 times for England, 241 times for his only club Harlequins and played twice for the British & Irish Lions on their 2009 tour to South Africa. Monye won both the second division and then the Premiership title with Harlequins, as well as winning the European Rugby Challenge Cup.
The Elgon Cup is contested between the rugby union teams of Kenya and Uganda. The men's and women's teams of these countries each compete annually for their respective cups on a Home-and-Away basis. The competition and the cups are named after Mount Elgon, a mountain on the border of the two countries.
Nakuru Rugby Football Club also known as 'Wanyore' is a Kenyan rugby club based in Nakuru. It has played for several years in the Kenya Cup and Eric Shirley Shield leagues run by the Kenya Rugby Football Union. Nakuru RFC operates and trains at the Nakuru Athletic Club Grounds in Nakuru. They play at the 2,000-capacity Nakuru Stadium.
Joe Simpson is a rugby union player who plays scrum half who plays for Sale Sharks in the Premiership Rugby. He most recently played for Gloucester, between 2006 and 2019 he played 230 times for Wasps, in 2011 he played one international for England and was named in the 2011 Rugby World Cup squad. He has also represented Team GB in rugby sevens.
Collins Injera is a former Kenyan rugby player. He holds third place for the number of tries scored on the World Rugby Sevens Series with 279. He is known for his achievements with Kenyan national rugby sevens team.
Rugby union in Tanzania is a minor but growing sport.
Established in 1950, the East Africa rugby union team is a multi-national rugby union team drawing players from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, though the vast majority of these came from Kenya which has traditionally been the strongest rugby playing nation in the region. The team has played against incoming international, representative and club touring sides and it conducted seven tours between 1954 and 1982.
The RFUEA Ground is a rugby union stadium located on the Ngong Road in Nairobi, Kenya. It was purpose built to be the home of the national team and to serve as the headquarters of the Rugby Football Union of Kenya (RFUK).[a] Coincidentally, the RFUEA ground has another parallel with Twickenham Stadium in the United Kingdom in that it also serves as the home ground for the Kenya Harlequin Football Club, just as their sister club the London Harlequins once played at Twickenham.
Kenya Harlequin Football Club, is a Kenyan rugby union club that competes in the Kenya Cup, the top level of Kenyan rugby. The club motto "Nunquam Dormio" is Latin, meaning I never sleep.
The Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) is an umbrella union for the Kenya Rugby Football Union, Tanzania Rugby Football Union and Uganda Rugby Football Union. It owes its existence to the fact that, prior to independence, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were either a protectorate or mandate of the British Empire. It now has little to do with the direct administration of the modern game but it continues to exist in order to promote and support the game in the three countries, to facilitate club competition between the three unions and to administer the RFUEA Ground and the East Africa rugby union team.
The Bamburi Super Series was an East African Rugby union competition with eight teams in total, five teams from Kenya two from Uganda and one from Tanzania (Twigas) that is currently defunct. It is closely based on the Super Rugby competition in the southern hemisphere. Games take place at the RFUEA Ground in Nairobi (Kenya), Friedkin Recreation Centre in Arusha (Tanzania) and the Kyadondo Grounds, Kampala (Uganda). Rhinos have won the most titles with four wins, and are the only team to have defended a title when they beat the Cheetahs 25–5 in the 2010 final.
The Enterprise Cup is an annual rugby union competition in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, though the competition frequently has the appearance of being an all-Kenyan affair as the majority of rugby clubs in the African Great Lakes region are based in this one country and frequently clubs in Tanzania and Uganda are unable to take part due to financial constraints. The original cup was donated by sailors from HMS Enterprise, who had toured British East Africa in 1928. The only years in which the competition has not been played is between 1940–1946 due to World War II and in 1987 because an international rugby competition was held on RFUEA Ground as part of the All Africa Games.
Rugby union in East Africa is almost entirely an amateur sport. It has been played in the three East African nations for more than a century; the first recorded match taking place in 1909, though it was almost certainly being played for several years prior to this. There are many club and school teams, the oldest of which were established in Colonial times.
Middlesex Rugby is the governing body for rugby union in Middlesex, England; Middlesex is a historic county of England that covers areas in the ceremonial counties of Greater London, Surrey and Hertfordshire. The historic county is still in use when referring to sport, and some businesses in the area. Middlesex RFU was originally created as the Middlesex County Rugby Club but within six years was being referred to as the Middlesex County Rugby Football Union and is now known simply as Middlesex Rugby.
First played in 1999,The Kenya National Sevens Circuit is an annual series of rugby sevens tournaments run by the Kenya Rugby Union in conjunction with host clubs featuring teams from across the country. Teams compete for the National Sevens Circuit title by accumulating points based on their finishing position in each tournament. The season’s circuit currently comprises 6 tournaments in 6 cities and towns across Kenya.
Sherborne Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club in Dorset in the south west of England. The club was established in 1980. It has a membership of 100 senior players and a further 300 boys and girls in the junior section. The club runs two men's teams with the 1st XV currently playing in Regional 2 South West – a league at level 6 of the English rugby union system – following their promotion as champions of Southern Counties South at the end of the 2018–19 season.
Kisumu Rugby Football Club is a Kenyan rugby union club based in Kisumu. Also known as Lakeside RFC, for the 2015–16 season the club competes in the Nationwide League.
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